The toothbrush is the most common instrument for cleaning teeth, gums, and other areas of the mouth. A toothbrush, unfortunately, is an inefficient device for removing plaque and stains from the enamel surfaces of teeth and is poorly suited for cleaning the surfaces of gum tissue. The inefficiency arises because plaque, while relatively soft, strongly adheres to enamel surfaces of the teeth. Because, plaque strongly adheres to enamel surfaces of teeth, brushing convection does not readily remove plaque. In order to remove all the plaque from the enamel surfaces of the teeth, bristles must contact each point on the surfaces of the teeth. Even where bristles contact the enamel surfaces of the teeth during a cleaning operation, the toothbrush generally fails to remove stains.
A further disadvantage of toothbrushing is the tendency of the toothbrush to cause gum abrasion, or toothbrush abrasion. The main symptom of toothbrush abrasion is gingival recession, or receding gums, often found in people who brush their teeth frequently. As the gums recede, sensitive parts of the teeth are exposed, generally resulting in painful reactions to hot and cold foods. Frequent brushing of the teeth, even with a very soft bristle toothbrush can lead to a condition of gingival recession. Furthermore, gingival recession is a progressive condition: it never improves but only worsens with time. Although the connection between toothbrushes and receding gums has been documented for over half a century, progress in the of dentition cleaning devices designed to reduce or eliminate receding gums has been tortuously slow.
In addition to causing gingival recession, toothbrushes are difficult to keep clean, because the bristles have a tendency to accumulate and trap debris. Further, toothbrushes have the propensity to retain water and remain moist long after brushing thus providing an excellent place for the cultivation of bacteria, germs and the like.
There have been several attempts to improve oral hygiene by providing cleaning devices that help remove plaque from the tongue, the gums and the palate. For example, Vezjak describes an oral hygiene brush in U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,043 that comprises a toothbrush and a rigid plaque scraper mounted on the side of the toothbrush head. The plaque scraper is engineered for removing plaque from the tongue, and Vezjak's device requires that a toothbrush still be used for cleaning teeth. Herrera, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,082 discloses a device for removing denture adhesive from the palate. The device comprises a head that has several lines of projections extending from a common surface. The projections are made of a material whose flexibility is temperature dependent, so that submerging the projections in hot water makes them more pliable, and placing them in cold water makes them more rigid. This device is tailored toward removing adhesive from the mouth, and cannot be effectively used for cleaning teeth. Tveras, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,856 discloses an oral scraping device having at least one wiping element. Each wiping element is flexible, and has at least one scoop-like side that terminates in a wiping edge in an undercutting fashion. This device is designed for scraping the tongue, and in the preferred embodiment, is mounted on a toothbrush handle on the end opposite the toothbrush head. Thus, using the device of Tveras, teeth must still be cleaned with a toothbrush.
The effects of gum stimulators were studied recently by M. J. Cronin et al., “Anti-Gingivitis Efficacy of Toothbrushing Compared to Toothbrushing and Gum Stimulation,” Journal of Dental Research 78 (Special Issue), 1999, p. 149. In this study, a group of test subjects used selected toothbrushes and gum stimulators regularly, and were compared to a control group that used the toothbrushes alone. The researchers found that the toothbrushes provided the same benefit in reducing gingival bleeding as the toothbrushes and gum stimulators combined. However, this study did not address the problem of gingival recession, nor did it provide an alternative to toothbrushing for cleaning teeth.
What is needed is an efficient contact dentition cleaning device and system that provides an alternative to using a toothbrush for cleaning teeth and that is capable of reducing bristle abrasion to the surrounding gum tissue.